Archive for the ‘Tamil Eelam’ Category

NDTV and Times Now have already approved Anna Hazare's movement as second freedom struggle. So its Official.

“ Anna Hazare ” is a classic case study to understand how media can drive a nation. The Jan Lokpal episode illustrated how television channels can blow tiny tots to a mammoth giant. The North Indian media in both English and Hindi are projecting as if the whole of India is on streets in support of Anna Hazare. In reality Anna’s hunger strike is just another protest for the majority. In South India it’s just another news. In Chennai considering the city’s population, only a handful of upper middle class are fasting with Anna fever. In Kashmir and the Northeast people have more serious things for concern than the Jan Lokpal bill. In all the Non-Hindi speaking states only the minority of the population which has access to English news channels cares about Anna’s fast, for the rest its business as usual. For ‘NDTV’ and ‘Times Now’ the English speaking Urban-Upper-Middle class means INDIA. They don’t care about any other protest by other sections. The North Indian media never gave a lime light equivalent to Anna’s fast to the peasants of Singur and Nandhigram Or the people of Kashmir Or the tribals of central India fighting against the ‘Operation Green Hunt’ Or the protest like the one against POSCO (Orissa), Vedanta (Niyamgiri hills) Or at least to the students who stood for Uniform syllabus in Tamilnadu. This cruel media can hide any true uprising of the masses and at the same time can uplift a totally middle-class movement like Anna Hazare’s. We are living in a country where the media decides what a protest is and what is not.

The world’s longest Hunger Strike is also going on in India. In Manipur the lady named Irom Chanu Sharmila is fasting since November-2000. She is demanding the Indian government to repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). The AFSPA is in force in seven states of North east and Jammu & Kashmir where there is no practical democracy and actually ruled by the Indian Army. With AFSPA in force the Army can attack any one without a proper social or technical justification. Irom Sharmila was arrested several times by the government and force fed through her nostrils. The North Indian Media never turned their camera on this Iron Lady of Manipur. The great Indian middle class who are jumping behind Anna Hazare is yet to discover the Northeast. And the North Indian Media needs another Columbus to reach northeast and unearth the atrocities of Indian Army there.

Muthukumar lying dead inside the premises of the Indian government building 'Shastri Bhavan' in Chennai on January 29, 2009.

Muthukumar's Funeral filled with a ocean of people. (click on the picture to expand)

Another example of media blockade was on the mass protest and movement by the Tamil Diaspora during the genocide of Srilankan Tamils in 2009. K. Muthukumar, a young journalist wanted to turn the attention of the Indian people and government towards the genocide of Srilankan Tamils. He wanted to stop the war in the island through a mass upraising in India. He made a self-immolation after distributing a four page pamphlet to the public before his death. This was not even a news material for the North Indian TV channels. Muthukumars death ignited a mass protest across Tamilnadu. Students were on streets shouting against the Indian and Lankan governments, Lawyers boycotted courts. Muthukumars funeral procession was attended by tens of thousands of people; streets were flooded by people shouting slogans, banners everywhere. At the same time Sun News was projecting India-Srilanka cricket match in breaking news. And as usual the North Indian media considered this as a regional stupidity and ensured that all these were not aired.

And we have the ‘Operation Green Hunt’ hunting tribals in the states of central India like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Where the government has singed numerous deals with multinational mining companies to exploit India’s natural resources Or to set up SEZ’s (Special Economic Zones). These companies want to evacuate the people living there. If they refuse to leave their land they will be killed by the Indian paramilitary forces with a popular escapism of curbing Naxalite’s. ‘Operation Green Hunt’ is alive since 2009. For ‘NDTV’ & ‘Times Now’ this was never been a matter of concern.

Tribals in Orissa protesting against land acquisition for a steel plant by POSCO, a South Korean multinational.

Today Anna Hazare is projected 24X7 in all Hindi and English channels. What is the difference between Anna and Irom Sharmila, Anna and Muthukumar or Anna and the tribals of central India.

Irom Sharmila’s protest directly questions the concept of Indian Union. She exposes the brutality of the Indian Armed forces. It brings out the Indian occupation of Manipur. In the interest of the Indian ruling class the media cannot give her a 24X7 status, only Anna & Co are eligible for that.

Similarly Muthukumar’s death raises a hammer on India’s foreign policy and its Geo-political interest in South Asia. Muthukumar’s death can shackle the built-up pseudo Image of Rajeev Gandhi as a peace messiah for Srilankan Tamils. And more importantly Muthukumar’s Image can be used to mobilize the masses to pressurize the Indian government to stop the war in Srilanka which was originally aimed to create new market for the Indian capitalist. As a market friendly media ‘Times Now’ and ‘NDTV’ cannot show something which will affect the Indian investors who were ready with their cash to invest in Srilanka after wiping out the freedom struggle of the Elam people.

In the same way the tribals of central India are exposing the cruelty of the ‘New Economic Policy’ which is praised by our brilliant middle class. They are exposing how the natural resource of this nation is plundered by the multinational companies. In the interest of capitalist and imperialist this valiant struggle by the tribals has to be hidden deep inside the dark.

On contrast Anna Hazare is not fighting against the Indian Union nor the Imperialist nor the capitalist. He is just another hero against the most popular villain to the middle class called ‘Politician’, Yes… Yes in most of the Indian movies a politician means villain. Anna’s version of corruption is very narrow. Anna and his group claim that corruption is only linked with government and politicians. They hide the fact that behind every mammoth scam there is a corporate hiding behind. They don’t feel tax waiver for huge corporation is a corruption. They don’t fight the actual enemy, they are just trying to divert the anger of the educated middle class towards the government so that the corporates exposed in the scams of the recent years can escape. Let’s apply Anna’s theory to the 2G scam, only A. Raja is the culprit and the corporate that paid kick bags to reduce the price of 2G licenses is not. If Anna’s men are protesting before the house of the MP’s, they should also protest before the gates of TATA and Reliance.

If we term this with a middle class eye, Anna Hazare’s protest is very much market friendly. No wonder why it was blown out of proportion by the capitalist media.

This naked protest by Manipuri women against the rapes and human rights violation by Indian Army shook the world, but not the Indian media. (Year 2004)

What is a Cluster Bomb?

Cluster bombs are air-dropped or ground-launched bombs that eject smaller bombs, a cluster of bomblets. Cluster bombs are used to kill a huge population with less effort. As cluster bombs release many small bomblets over a wide area many people can be killed. Unexploded sub munitions are very costly to locate and remove.

International Prohibition

Most current cluster bomb designs that have explosive sub munitions are prohibited by those nations that will ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which was adopted in Dublin, Ireland in May 2008 and signed by 94 nations on 3-4 December 2008 in Oslo, Norway. The general rules of international humanitarian law aimed at protecting civilians also apply to cluster bombs as they do to all weapons.

How the clusters explode?

This is how a cluster bomb explodes

Why the Srilankan government uses Cluster Bombs?

In 2008/09 the Srilankan government is using the deadly cluster bombs to reduce the population of minority Tamils in the North and Eastern parts of Srilanka. The international community is showing a blind eye to this genocide. The government of India and Japan are backing the Srilankan government for this planned Genocide.

See this to know what happened to Tamils in Srilanka

Please see the pictures at the end of this page. The pictures are purposely kept at the end so that viewing this will not disturb your reading. Weak hearted people & children are advised not to view this.

What you can do?

Please spread this among your friends and relatives.

Pressure your governments to take efforts to stop this genocide.

If you are living in India, identify the political forces backing the Srilankan government and protest against them.